Calling and Career in Christian Ministry

Author(s): Richard W. Christopherson

Source: Review of Religious Research , Mar., 1994, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Mar., 1994), pp. 219-
237
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3511890

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 219

CALLING AND CAREER IN CHRISTIAN MINISTRY

Richard W. Christopherson

Azusa Pacific University

Review of Religious Research, Vol. 35, No. 3 (March, 1994)

This is a study of the relationship between "calling" and "career"

the lives of American clergy. Data were collected through a series
intensive interviews with ministers and priests from various Chri
churches. It is my thesis that pressure for success in a career make
calling increasingly problematic; however, the "discovery and deve
ment of vocation" (Emmet, 1958:254) remain critical for modern cl
not only because the legitimacy of their work rests on traditional c
to selflessness and divine direction, but also because their own iden
and personal worth are defined by the call. These issues are approa
by investigating two areas of pastoral experience: first, the nature of
relationship between clergy and laity, especially as this impacts the
gy's authority in the church; second, the clergy's concern with gr
and change as the basic purpose of their work; in conclusion,
between calling and identity are reconsidered.

INTRODUCTION

The work of Christian ministers is precariously poised between the

ideals of their "call" and the secular demands and rewards of their "career". The
conflict over purpose and authority in the ministry is often waged between these
two normative boundaries. Faithfulness in a calling implies a life devoted to ser-
vice in a community and a level of involvement and dedication to one's work
that goes beyond self-interest. A calling is a task set by God with a sense of
obligation to work for purposes other than one's own. John Calvin describes a
"secret call" that is "the honest testimony of our heart that we accept the office
offered to us, not from ambition or avarice, or any other unlawful motive, but
from a sincere fear of God. . ." (quoted in Pauck, 1983:141). A career, on the
other hand, is work that is chosen rather than imposed; individuals select the
career path, the school, and the job offer that is best for them, and to do other-
wise would be considered imprudent, even irrational. A professional career is
fundamentally about developing one's skills, accomplishing specialized tasks,
and steadily moving up the professional status ladder. Burton Bledstein
(1976:177), commenting on the shifting emphasis from calling to career in early
19th century America, says:

A profession no longer circumscribed a man, confining him to a

preestablished station in life, including a calling toward which sympathetic
parents guided him. A man now actively chose his profession.... The world
of movement and expectation focused on the spirited individual, his spe-
cialized nature, his self-discipline, and the continuity of his rise rather

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220

than his humility, his self-subordination to the social order and his depen-
dence upon God's will. In the steps of a career, an individual progressively
discovered his potential, and his sense of worldly power rose accordingly.'

The emphasis on the discovery of personal potential and worldly power, per-
haps more than anything else, distinguishes career from the older self-subjugat-
ing ideals of calling and vocation.2 Robert Bellah, et al. (1985:66) contend that
the idea of calling "has become harder and harder to understand as our society
has become more complex and utilitarian and expressive individualism more
dominant." In their interviews with middle class Americans, Bellah and col-
leagues discovered only a shadowy remnant of the notions of service and oblig-
ation to community. They conclude that while "the idea of calling has become
attenuated and the largely private 'job' and 'career' have taken its place, some-
thing of the notion of calling lingers on, not necessarily opposed to, but in addi-
tion to, job and career".
It is in the professions that notions of work as service and "duty in a calling"
have survived. Perhaps these ideals linger on in theory more than professional
practice, but in various forms they continue to rattle around the structures of
modern work like Max Weber's (1958:182) "ghost of dead religious beliefs."
Theories of professionalization all recognize "the norm of altruism" and/or "a
sense of calling to the field" as essential attributes of professional work.
Sociologists concerned with differentiating professions from occupations have
approached the problem in various ways, but the argument between the structural
functionalists and the more politically conscious conflict (or "power") theorists,
for example, isn't whether to include "service ethic" and "the call" as theoretical
dimensions of professions and professionalization-they are always included-
the question instead is whether we should believe professional advocates when
they claim motives other than self-interest. Are the apparent differences between
professions and ordinary occupations real differences? Are professionals in fact
called to a life of service, or are they using these historic notions about work as
convenient ideological tools to extract a broader mandate and a greater power for
themselves and their professions? McKinlay (quoted in Ritzer, 1977:52) con-
cludes that the professional's claim to special calling is a deception.

We are still told that people are 'called' to the ministry or priesthood,
but suspect that no God called them. Similarly, in the field of law, we hear
that people are 'called to the bar,' although again we know that nobody
called them and that the initiative was entirely theirs.... Since a dispro-
portionate number of those in dominant professions are from families
already in or associated with them it would appear whoever's doing the
calling, is doing it in a highly biased and self-protective fashion.

Self-serving deception or not, the dilemma posed by the conflicting values of

calling and career remains a real problem for many professionals, but perhaps
no group struggles with this more than professional clergy. Vocation is basically
a religious notion and, even as the idea has been reformed and attached to "secu-
lar" professions, the special significance of the call for the clergy has not been
lost. Clergy are modern vocational characters who literally have been "called"
to a career. The call is not optional for Christian ministers; to a considerable

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 221

degree work as vocation has been institutionalized in seminaries, churches, and

denominations. In their examination of ministerial candidates, for example,
churches historically have taken seriously the "genuineness" of the call along
with their consideration of authenticity of religious experience, moral character,
doctrine, and adequacy of preparation (Mead, 1983). Clergy are the designated
guardians of the sacred ideal of the call and their careers are expected to be the
real life embodiment of those ideals. Their lives and work make the call visible
and real.3
The calling has received some attention in published studies of the ministry,
although the theoretical and methodological approaches have been limited. In
general, social research has focused on secularization, professionalization, indi-
vidualism, voluntarism, and the resulting stress in the lives of clergy. Mills
(1985:168-169) concludes that the emphasis in ministry studies is more likely to
be on "the effects of social change than those of the intrinsically ambiguous role
of the sacred." When calling is considered, it is often found in research that
takes a functionalist approach to distinguishing professions from occupations.
To what extent do the structural and attitudinal characteristics of clerical min-
istry correspond to the professional model? Gannon (1971), Jarvis (1975), and
Bryman (1985), for example, approach this as an empirical question, and they
all make use of Hall's (1968:93) professionalism scale to measure the relative
degree of professionalization of clergy. "Sense of calling to the field" is defined
by Hall as "dedication of the professional to his work and the feeling that he
would probably want to do the work even if fewer extrinsic rewards were avail-
able". Calling is treated as a discrete variable, linked to a constellation of profes-
sional attributes, but essentially isolated from the broader cultural context.
Carroll (1991) and Wallace (1992) take broader views of pastoral work and
calling. The women interviewed by Wallace work in priestless, Roman Catholic
parishes without benefit of ordination-a situation that puts an emphasis on
their personal skill in ministry and their vocational convictions. It takes more
evidence, a more convincing pastoral performance, so to speak, to persuade the
laity that their work is legitimate. For the women pastors themselves, the inner
call becomes critical. "I think that deep down I am called to minister. That is
why sometimes it makes me feel so bad that they give me a job and then they tie
my hands up" (Wallace, 1992:143). Asked what keeps her going, another
woman answered: "I think the people....and an inner call. I really think the Spirit
is the one that speaks through me, that is doing things on Sundays....Once I have
it all written and all prepared, I say, "Lord it is your job. And He/She takes
over" (170). Carroll's book offers clergy "new bases for claiming their authority
and for exercising it as reflective leaders" (Carroll, 1991:33). In his view, a gen-
uine call is one of the factors that can be used to increase pastoral authority. It
may be possible, but "it is exceedingly difficult to symbolize God's trustworthi-
ness in the midst of life if one is not also a participant in that reality" (200). It is
a "lively sense of calling (that) undergirds and fuses the expertise of reflective
leadership with sacramental presence" (202), and brings a renewal of the cler-
gy's authority.
The present study is not concerned with the ontological status of the call, nor
with the location of clerical ministry on a continuum of professionalism. The
focus is on the "call" as cultural symbol-a symbol to which clergy develop a

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222

measure of commitment, and (something both Wallace and Carroll highlight) a

symbol which clergy use as they go about their everyday life and work. Vocation,
the call, altruism, work as service, etc., aren't just attributes of a particular occupa-
tional status, nor are they merely myths or ideologies foisted on a trusting public
to maximize professional autonomy; they are more accurately understood as cen-
tral elements of the cultural context in which ministry takes place. From this per-
spective, the call is a "frame" (Goffman, 1974) within which clergy try to make
sense of their experience. This frame provides "definitions of the situation (that)
are built up in accordance with the principles of organization which govern
events. ..and our subjective involvement in them" (Goffman, 1974:10-11). It is in
the experience of the call, the ethical discipline of altruistic ministry, that these
symbols come alive for clergy. The calling constitutes a normative system that
reflects a particular set of values and proscribes a particular kind of behavior.
Therefore, in order to understand the cultural dimensions of calling and vocation,
it is necessary to conduct more open-ended investigations, to pay attention to what
clergy say about their work, and to observe how clergy actually use the call.
Dorothy Emmet (1958:253-254) offers a key insight. Because vocations are
characterized by an "absence of vanity", and the vocational person is always
loyal to something more than "his own purposes":

The language in which people try to talk of vocation is thus likely to be

not the organic functional language nor the political purposive language,
but religious language. It may indeed turn out that the discovery and
development of vocation is one of the main things that religious language
is about.

It is the thesis of this paper that "the discovery and development of vocation"
are critical for modem clergy, not only because the legitimacy of their work
rests on traditional claims to selflessness and divine direction, but also because
their own identity and personal worth are defined by the call. Without a convic-
tion of God's leading, clergy are left to pursue the secular, rational, profession-
alized goals of individual careers-careers that draw them into unequal compe-
tition with practitioners of the modem, science-based professions. Bryan Wilson
(1966:98) suggests that today's clergy resemble "the charcoal-burners or
alchemists in an age when the processes in which they were engaged had been
rendered obsolete technically or intellectually." The work of physicians, social
workers, attorneys, scholars, professionals and semi-professionals of all sorts
has usurped much of the territory that formerly belonged to the church, and
these developments have often left the clergy scurrying about looking for some-
thing to do-and not incidentally, someone to be. In this situation the call takes
on a renewed significance because it can provide a kind of moral compass to
guide the "called" through the changing landscape of modem society. It pro-
vides a means of dealing with the ambiguity of modem life. It can be a source of
identity, of authority and purpose independent of the technical, competence-
based standards of competing professions. At its most profound, the call defines
the boundary between what is right and what is wrong, what is eternal and what
is temporal, what is sacred and what is profane. The call, when heard, is a tran-
scendent voice that defines and justifies the self as it guides and empowers the
work of ministry.

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 223

In his passionate essays on science and politics as vocations, Weber

(1946:127) argues for the necessity of this kind of "inward calling" in modern
society. He describes the "mature man" of politics who:

...really feels such responsibility with his heart and soul.... and some-
where he reaches the point where he says: 'Here I stand; I can do no
other.' That is something genuinely human and moving. And every one of
us who is not spiritually dead must realize the possibility of finding him-
self at some time in that position.

Likewise, Weber writes that the scientist also must "come up to the idea that
the fate of his soul" depends on his work (135). For Weber:

The calling is not primarily a source of self satisfaction or the satisfac-

tion of craftsmanly desires, nor is it seen as the fulfillment of talents or of
satisfying involvement with an activity that they love. Instead, it serves the
needs of self-definition, self-justification, and identity through devotion to
a higher ideal through service (Goldman, 1988:110).

The immediate problem for clergy is that their vocation must be discovered
and developed within a culture of professionalism, a milieu dominated by the
secular norms and individualistic values of the middle-class career. Whatever
the call, however definitive, however transcendent it might be, clergy are not
spared the intense career pressures that afflict the middle-class. When one's
career choice is Christian ministry, and one's career path leads into the church,
and one's identity is defined by success in professional church work, the dilem-
ma becomes apparent. The point at which career and calling intersect in the
lives of working clergy is the particular focus of this study.

METHODS

Data were gathered in a series of intensive, open-ended interview

twenty-four clergy men and women in 1991-92. Interviews were tape
transcribed, and ranged from one hour to over four hours in length.
an interview strategy similar to that outlined in Lofland and Loflan
Respondents were asked about their decisions to enter the professional m
their formal and informal preparation for ministry, and their everyda
ences in pastoring churches. They were specifically encouraged to talk a
issues that they see as most critical in their work with the laity. How
know what they should be doing? What gives them the a sense of acc
ment? What frustrates them about ministry work?
All of the respondents were senior (or solo) pastors; twenty-one w
churches located in a suburban town (population 60,000) in the A
Southwest; three were from neighboring towns. The local phone book li
seven Christian churches, and the purposive sample represents a varied
of denominations, church sizes, years of pastoral experience, theolog
educational backgrounds. A conscious attempt was made to select both
women, Roman Catholics and Protestants of various types (fundamental

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224

gelical, charismatic, and mainline). More sectarian churches such as Religious

Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Latter Day Saints were not included.4
The inductive analysis began concurrently with the interview process. I kept
analytic files as ideas occurred to me and spent increasing amounts of time read-
ing and rereading the interview transcripts. My initial interest was the clergy's
sense of calling; the analysis presented, however, has not been imposed on the
data, but is drawn out of the language clergy used when they talked about their
work. Also, the focus is not on differences between clergy (although many were
discovered); rather, a description is offered of the experiences, problems, ideals,
beliefs and sentiments common to professional Christian ministers. Two major
aspects of the pastor's role are discussed: first, the nature of the relationship
between clergy and laity, especially as this impacts the clergy's authority in the
church; second, the clergy's concern with growth and change as the basic purpose
of their work; in conclusion, links between calling and identity are reconsidered.

AUTHORITY AND THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS

The tension between calling and career is evident in the relationshi

clergy and laity. In the Reformation tradition there is not supposed t
distinction between pastor and people. The medieval notion of two
and work-the monastic and priestly path for those called to perfectio
ordinary path for those whose duty lies in secular work-was replac
idea that all Christians are called into a life of service and holiness re
occupation.5 All of the clergy interviewed, reformed or not, expresse
viction that ministry is not the exclusive responsibility of ordai
because "ministry belongs to the people." If all Christians, to the e
they accept God's mandate for their life and work, are called, what is
special about clergy? How does their vocation set them apart? What a
derived from the call to professional ministry? A pastor responded:

My feeling on that, my philosophy is that the only real reason

authority is because I have ultimate responsibility.... Ifeel like my r
sibility is to provide leadership organizationally and visionary lea
and to inspire and to train and teach people to do the work of minis

Ministry is a job that requires a clear division of labor in the ch

although pastors may have "ultimate responsibility" each member has
cific responsibilities.6 The terms clergy use to describe their role in t
labor force include: "paid staff', "full-time minister", "professional p
"trained clergy". In deference to the priesthood of all believers t
describe themselves as "equipers", "coaches", "instructors", "m
"administrators" as well as "leaders". Clergy balance their respon
particular church with responsibility to their "inner call". "The voice
gregation is not the voice of God" (Gustafson, 1963:35), and the dy
professional ministry resonate between the church's demands fo
achievements and the clergy's sense of vocation.' A well educated p
small mainline Protestant congregation responded to a question abo
gy's responsibility to their church:

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 225

Generally it is what the church calls you to do. You may be the world's
greatest prophet but the church may not be calling a prophet ....Here,
they wanted someone with a strong religious education background who
likes people, likes calling, wasn't afraid to go to the hospital and see peo-
ple who are really ill, a person who was a listener, a person who liked to
preach and a person who wanted to keep office hours (laughs).

You are sensitive to their expectations?

Yes I am. I have my own, but you know they are my employer. I'm
faithful to God, but I honestly do take a job description seriously.

Achieved Authority and the Call to a Church

Clergy talk about the authority they are granted when they display knowl-
edge, skill and usefulness in managing the everyday life of the church. Their
leadership role within the priesthood of all believers is enhanced to the extent
that their work pleases the laity.8 Problems arise and authority may be with-
drawn if there is conflict between the laity's expectations and the pastor's con-
victions; it is at these points of disagreement with the congregation that the
dilemma of calling and career becomes tangible. Liberal pastors, for example,
talk about difficulties with conservative congregations:

This group is conservative politically, theologically, financially, any-

way you can think of Right of right. I would say fascist, bigoted.... They
don't really want to be too stirred up.... I am much more liberal and
social action oriented than most of the congregation, and I honor that. I
don't sidestep it, but I don't beat them over the head. If I did that, then the
twenty-seven people who were in worship when I came will be gone. They
love God, they just don't know how generous we should be with that.

At times the differences with the parishioners are very personal. A pastor
referred to a member who dropped by her office during our interview:

That man that was just here-he is the most sexist man I know. He
wants to take care of every woman in the universe. And he does all of the
things that are anathema to me....My second sermon was on David and
Bathsheba, and I preached about sexual justice. The word I got was cool
it on women's issues. I was just following the lectionary! I don't want to
force my vision on them, but quicken and awaken that vision in them.

Even when the issues aren't as public or as potentially volatile as politics or the-
ology, simply sorting through the congregation's expectations can be a challenge.

It's difficult because of the multitude of mini-expectations that people

have. When I call you I want you to visit with me on the phone. I just
thought I'd drop in and tell you about my last bike ride in the mountains.

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226

Some people just want you to preach....Generally the rent-traditionally

there is a kind of rent that you have to pay and then you are OK--has
been preaching, some teaching, and pastoral care which is visiting the
sick and shut-ins. I'd say the biggest part of the rent is probably preach-
ing.... You can't pay the rent, which probably means you can't survive,
unless you can preach well.

Good preaching is basic to pastoral authority, but it is possible to gain addi-

tional influence by manipulating the symbols of the pastorate. A pastor with a
Ph.D.:

(You) can enhance your authority by what you wear and how you
carry yourself how you talk and so forth. I'm very conscious of those
things but try not to rely upon those things. Sometimes I will-I'll use my
title at a meeting-I'm not going to let these guys with their 'D. Min's'
going around trying to assert their authority get away with that. I know
how to use that sort of stuff, but I don't use it in the local church. I serve
at the pleasure of the congregation. I feel called by God, but I'm very
careful how I use my authority.

A minister who had recently taken a church where several predecessors had
been "voted out" talked about the necessity of "being smart" and not acting like
a "dim wit" in his dealings with the laity.

I've got to be wise and not use up all of my points on things that don't
matter, and I have got to win the right to be heard.... I was talking to a
good friend of mine who serves a church in Detroit, and someone asked
him (if he) could drive a Japanese car, and he said, 'no he couldn't."
'Well yes I could,' he said, 'but you only get so many points, and I don't
want to use them up on that.'

There is authority in being good at church work. The pastor with an appeal-
ing personality, loved despite his or her politics, the pastor with the requisite
human relations skills to maneuver through the troubled waters of the local
church, the pastor who can deliver what the congregation wants, the pastor who
demonstrates professional competence achieves a measure of autonomy and per-
haps "wins" the right to be heard. In this sense, skillful achievement makes
vocational faithfulness possible.

Priestly Authority and the Inner Call

A Roman Catholic who had attended a cloistered seminary during the 1950s,
talked about the role of priests and laity in the church:

Theologically there is no difference between priest and laity, but they

have different offices in the church. All of us are supposed to be equal
through our baptism. In the old days there was a kind of hierarchy, that
people who were ordained were more holy, or better, and those who
chose to remain unmarried were holier than those who married, but those
were very subjective kind of criteria, and we work against that

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 227

today....But when you try to get into the transcendent God, you're really
into an awesome area there, and I think the sacramental system--and the
priest is the designated church person to administer the sacrament-pro-
vides that holy ground in which to feel the transcendence.

Sacraments provide an antidote to the professional insecurity engendered by

a common priesthood-"holy ground" where transcendence is shared with (or
perhaps dispensed to) the laity. The performance of priestly duties symbolizes
an inner calling and a special relationship to the sacred. In this sense, priestly
authority is not achieved and carries more of an obligation to the community
than opportunity for self.' The idea of Christian equality through common bap-
tism has been slow to catch on in religious systems where laity trust their clergy
to represent the sacred for them.
On the Protestant side of town, clergy also talk about the priestly dimensions
of their work.'" Ministry is a "privilege like no other", a "high calling", pastors
are ordained to "sacred and holy work", the pastor's role is "transcendent"-
there is "mystery" in the work of even the most reformed clergy interviewed for
this study. Protestant pastors may stand in front of their congregation wearing
business clothes, but they have not been completely stripped of holy vestments.
In churches where the seven sacraments have been reduced to two, where laity
lead the worship, administer the communion elements, and even preach when
the pastor is on vacation, there is still a recognition that professional clergy are
somehow special. A conservative evangelical talked about his experience:

They would never call you a priest to save their little lives, but if you
want to clear out the debris and the labels, that is what you do. You are a
go-between, you are a special representative of God, and boy I'll tell you
it is a mixed blessing, but it is a blessing, it is a privilege, an honor, a
holy responsibility...

When I asked a liberal pastor, an individual who had been a very active
Christian laywoman before going to seminary, how full-time ministry was dif-
ferent from her previous work, she answered:

Well, this is holy work. It makes me tremble. I love it, but I think it is
very different to read scripture and to preach from the pulpit than to be a
public speaker or teacher which I had lots of experience at. But to get up
on Sunday mornings in front of the people that have been entrusted to me
is very special and a bit scary.

This attitude about preaching reflects the traditional view of the reformers,
that when the pastor preaches from the pulpit it is Christ who speaks. A pro-
found mystery remains in the idea that Christ is made present in the words of
the sermon, and much of the Protestant clergy's authority derives from their call
to preach. A staunchly Calvinist pastor who repeatedly stressed the conviction
that all of life is holy for Christians, that distinctions between the church and the
world, the sacramental and the non-sacramental, the holy and the profane are
"not a part of our best theology", was quick to assign special significance to his
work in the church:

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228

I don't think that there are too many things that are all that mystical...
see I'm not much for the dichotomy that this is a spiritual area and this one
isn't. But nothing could be better than to do work in the kingdom of Jesus
Christ, to help people in an area of their life which is more important than
any other area. To impart spiritual truth and biblical values. I mean what
other thing-I'm doing the most important thing there is to do in the world.

A young, mainline Protestant expressed reluctance to accept the priestly

authority offered by his parishioners:

Theoretically. . .my job is to equip and energize and empower people

and inspire people to ministry....In practical terms, though, I am more
than that. I carry a lot of symbolic weight for people. So my presence at
certain times-ideally, theoretically, it shouldn't matter if I visit some-
body in the hospital before their surgery or when they are grieving, yet
practically speaking there is a priestly role that I have to be aware of.
I've often been uncomfortable with that in a way, because it took me a
while to understand that it is not anything that I say, it is simply the force
of the symbol-my presence as pastor.

An evangelical who was considering a career change responded to a question

about what he would miss most if he left full-time ministry:

I guess the place you fill in people's lives. The pastor has a real inter-
esting role in this. But being the person who they call in despair, being
the person who gets to do the wedding, being the person at the
funeral.... These are very significant things and I just wouldn't do them as
a layman. It's not a question of your abilities, it is a question of your role
in the church, and that's why you get called.

Clergy believe they will find a meaningful place in the larger community,
and a sense that a higher power is working through them, if they are faithful
stewards in their sacred vocation. They want to be God's priest-not simply a
person skilled at pleasing their congregation but the one who has been ordained
to bring truth, blessing and peace to the laity. Clergy appreciate times of crisis
or joy when their presence is taken for granted and their priestly status is clear.
They love the inexplicable moments when ministry "works" and no one can say
for certain exactly how or why. As they describe them, these are the "high holy
moments", "transcendent encounters", the "evidence of grace" when the sym-
bols of their faith and the convictions of their calling come together and they are
convinced it is God's work that is being accomplished.

GROWTH AND THE PURPOSE OF MINISTRY

When clergy talk about what they want to accomplish, what it is that the
called to do, they inevitably talk about change and growth. They point
improvements they would like to see in a wide range of people and situat
They talk about being "geared towards changing the church" or of bring
"renewal" to an entire city: "We really feel that the Lord is raising (us) up t
involved in capturing a city, helping and becoming an encouragement to

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 229

churches in the city to come together." Spiritual direction is emphasized: "The

best thing is experiencing spiritual growth in people. Being there when people
change." They talk about their own personal growth: "I think the most reward-
ing thing is continuing to discover what my priesthood is. You know just contin-
uing to explore and reflect and see what kind of growth comes out of that."
Finally, growth in the size of their congregations is a frequently mentioned a
goal that elicits a wide variety of specific strategies."
As a primary purpose for ministry, growth touches both the clergy's calling
and their career. A successful career means a larger congregation, a growing
budget, an enhanced personal reputation. The indicators of career growth are
usually easy to assess, and all of the respondents talked about their work in
these terms. Growth in a calling is more difficult to measure because it is sub-
jective and concerned with intrinsic changes in people and ministry situations-
personal and spiritual growth means qualitative improvements in the clergy's
own life, the life of the church and the lives of the faithful. Clergy look for ways
to balance the demands of the two types of growth. One young pastor said that
the contrast is essentially between tabulating the "numbers that are now active
in a church" versus "sensing the power of the Holy Spirit."

Two Kinds of Growth

When asked what aspect of ministry brings them closest to their calling, cler-
gy from a broad spectrum of churches use a common vocabulary to describe
parallel experiences of spiritual growth and change. Two examples:

Oh, like the past Sunday, a gentleman who never joined the church,
really is one that doesn't even believe in prayer--coming out of the
church service just beaming, and you know that the sermons are speaking
to him, and he is discovering a new faith in that. That God is present to
us, and with us and for us, and so to see him come out really beaming and
filled with a new joy.

Just in the kind of serendipity things.... When two people talk and it is
just spiritually, emotionally, and physically rewarding or helpful. You just
know that there is more there than the two of you. I love that. That is why
I do it, and you can't plan that .... I think it is God with dimples (laughs). I
really do, and I never had thought of God like that before I was in the
ministry....People change in those moments.

Critical in each of these experiences is a sense of communion or fellowship

with the laity and a conscious recognition that the clergy's work was used by
God to bring about some valued change. Through work in their calling, clergy
are channels for a higher purpose-the spiritual transformation and develop-
ment of persons who come in contact with the church.
When clergy speak about career growth their language changes. The rhetoric
of achievement is more objective, calculating and often quantitative. Asked
about a "career track" in his denomination, an evangelical, new to his senior
pastor status and uncertain about his own career direction, said:

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230

There is the multi-staff track and there is the church size track. You
have two options when you get out of seminary-one, you can go to a
multi-staff church; the other is you can go find some small church or
church planting venture someplace. I don't care who you are or how
good your record is, you just don't start at a large church as a senior pas-
tor.... Church property is a stage property and by that it means it matters
not how it got there, what matters is that if it is that big you've succeeded.

Clergy share an understanding of the status differences that exist in church

work. A pastor whose church has approximately 250 members:

My parents go to a church that has 4,300 members, so by the stan-

dards of their church, I'd be seen as a failure serving a church like this.
Which is part of my own identity, having to work through that bag-
gage.... The first question they always ask, 'How big?' If it's a pastor they
ask, 'How many do you run in Sunday School?" That is always the mea-
sure of your success.... Whenever they meet you, they have to establish the
pecking order.

Asked if he felt that he was successful in the ministry, a pastor gave a sur-
prisingly frank assessment of his own record:

On a scale of one to ten I'd rate my ministry as an eight, maybe high-

er.... over the ten years I have been in the ministry, I've had considerable
success in church growth.... That was me and that was God and that was a
lot of things. I considered that the key indicator, how many people. ..

As careerists, clergy know where they stand on the status ladder. However,
achievements in ministry aren't supposed to be announced with fanfare, and
there is a common cynicism about colleagues who misuse the language of voca-
tion-blatant self-promoters, for example, who are too proud of their own
accomplishments. "You hear about people being called to a church, but why
does God always call people to higher paying churches, to places with a better
'package'?" The religious language of the call doesn't focus on personal victo-
ries, money, or church size; when used correctly the calling offers a way to talk
about work in selfless and spiritual terms.

Reconciling the Two Kinds of Growth

Because growth is a central metaphor in discourse about both career and

vocation, the language of success in a career often edges very close to the lan-
guage of duty in a calling, and this is the source of some confusion about what
growth means, and therefore some confusion about the purpose of ministry. Of
course it is through one's work in a public career that the inner call is manifest-
ed, and there is a temptation to believe that if one finds success in the career the
validity of the call is confirmed.12 A successful clergyman responded to the
question, "Is growth important to you personally?"

Yes it is. I'm very concerned about growth in people. I'm less con-
cerned about growth in numbers, but I'm not unconcerned about it

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 231

because usually they tend to go together, although not dogmatically.

Having said all of this, I have a deep fatigue of the soul concerning
church growth as a movement..., if that is what I wanted to do I would
have gone into business because it would have paid better and it is a lot
easier.

A pastor whose small church is losing members expressed a similar confu-

sion:

I'm as much a product of the success syndrome as anybody else, and

often I get frustrated about why we can't attract more people because I
think we are doing everything right.... I would much, much rather desire
inner growth, growth of the inner person, and have a community where
people really loved each other and accepted each other and were minis-
tering, that is the key issue. I would think that as a byproduct of that you
would grow in numbers. That really has not happened to us.

Clergy are tempted to work for successful careers because the rewards
are tangible. A pastor whose thirty year career has been spent working
with small, sometimes troubled congregations explained his dilemma:

Lots of churches are just like entertainment, you know-I'm not

against church growth and church growth principles-but I think the
emphasis that has been put on church growth has put a lot of pressure on
younger pastors to prove themselves. And it is almost 'make your church
grow at any cost', whether it is proselytizing or dealing with the latest
thing down the line-or even teaching a popular doctrine. I could do that.
I could preach certain things in the Pentecostal line, the faith and pros-
perity and those things that I don't believe are very balanced. . .they are
clear off the chart. I mean I could teach that and there are people who
visit our church who would stay, but because they don't hear that they
don't stay.

For many clergy the calling is defined in opposition to what they could do,
what they could become, if they were to ignore the duty that has been imposed
on them.'3 They are better able to understand what the calling means by compar-
ing it to the norms and values of the career. Knowing what the calling is not
serves as a hedge against the secular preoccupation with technique, rational
solutions to specific instrumental problems, and empirical assessments of suc-
cess or failure. Faithfulness in a vocation, as working clergy talk about it, means
resisting selfishness and careerism, holding onto the ideals of transcendent pur-
pose in one's life and work. Growth and positive change are the outcomes of
faithfulness.

Failure to Grow

When growth does not occur, the consequences for individual clergy can be
wrenching. Perhaps the most serious risks are centered in relationships with the

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232

laity because, when laity fail, clergy share the failure with them. A pastor with
twenty-five years of experience said: "Ministry requires that you identify your-
self with (the laity), give your time to them, your privacy, your heart to them.
You are very vulnerable in the pastorate and too often they use that against
you." A Catholic priest observed: "You are transparent. They can see every-
thing, and if something isn't working, people will know." A young evangelical,
who specializes in small group ministry, described his work as if he was collect-
ing "beautiful and wonderful rocks" and dropping them into his backpack:

... and after awhile it is like a weight, it is really overwhelming. And

what I'd like to have is the feeling that I'm picking up another log and
dropping it on the fire and it is burning more and more intensely as it
goes, but the backpack and rock routine, sooner or later I am really going
to be paying some dues on this.

The burden of the ministry, the impending sense of personal cost, the danger
inherent in relationships with the laity are even more difficult because clergy are
often not protected by barriers of professional distance. A mainline pastor
explained: "You play a role and it's important to appear strong, but in the end
you are yourself, and sometimes there can be a lot of risk in that. You expect too
much and they expect too much.""' Pastors take the problems of people in their
congregations personally:

When I was candidating here, they asked me how do I accept criticism.

They should have asked how do I handle rejection.... When you see people
leave your church because they don't like your ministry, and some of
these people you are close to, and people leave for reasons that you can't
believe. It hurts....People rarely tell you the truth. A couple I was really
close to-1 really like them-wanted to meet me for lunch and they told
me that they were probably going to leave the church. They made up a
story about why they were leaving-1 found out the truth later. People
won 't tell you that your messages are lousy, or we don't like your person-
ality, or we don't think you are a leader.

Perhaps the most difficult and most poignant problems involve the clergy's
own moral failure. A senior clergyman who had recently left a large prominent
church for a much smaller one, reflected on his divorce:

They couldn't cope with the frailty, the humanness. That is what hap-
pened in my last church and that is why I had to go in the end. I couldn't
bear working in that kind of situation. The spotlight was on me, the shame
I knew because I couldn't make this relationship work. If I had been a
teacher or a lawyer or just about anything else, the fact that I had sepa-
rated wouldn't have meant that level of condemnation. I longed for that
anonymity, moral anonymity, to deal with the pain that I was feeling
because of that .... My private life made me a worse minister, a flawed
minister, and I longed to get away from that.

As appealing as it might seem in moments of crisis, clergy are not just teach-
ing or practicing law. Their claims to authority and purpose aren't tied only to
their function or to their education or their occupational role. In this sense, min-

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 233

istry remains a "high calling", and clergy are expected to be different from ordi-
nary persons. Clergy are not just skilled practitioners of specialized techniques
performing necessary services; they remain somewhat mysterious figures,
linked to a pre-scientific past and to a present day community of faithful believ-
ers. Their lives are not completely their own-they are symbols of something
greater than themselves. Their claim to a special call implies that they draw on
powers beyond the conscious level, that their private lives and career are not
separate but are bound together in a literal embodiment of some of the culture's
highest values.

CONCLUSIONS: CALLING AND IDENTITY

Ministers generally do want a good job; they want success in a career

ized skills, and a measure of personal power and status. But in the mids
cussions about professional goals, clergy talk about an inner voice that
to do what is right. They blend the language of accomplishment wit
guage of ascription, obligation and service. They gain some authority
competence in managing the religious enterprise: getting people to sh
share the work, to give money and time. They find power and joy in th
ous priestly dimensions of ministry. They struggle with issues of gr
change. As professional careerists, clergy have something to be prou
are achievers who demonstrate personal potential through work. Be
however, leaves them with nothing to boast about, only a duty to fulfil
an ascetic, non-competitive quality to the calling that excludes the self
person just as surely as the person fully committed to a vocation is excl
worldly competition in a career. Clergy struggle to maintain a sense of
within the professionalized environment of the modem church.
The calling becomes a symbol of resistence to the modern preoc
with technique and personal achievement. And, in the final analys
"called" means being a person who can be used for transcendent pur
an actor playing out the minister's role, but a person whose "self has b
formed into a transparent medium of godly action" (Goldman, 198
calling makes God's will personal and individual. Karl Barth's (1
expression of the New Testament idea, "God does not just ask us: Wh
doing? but in and with that: Who are you?" is echoed in the words of m
gy as they talk about their sense of vocation.

My overriding concern is not professional ministry, but 'well d

thou good and faithful servant.' Have I served the role, performe
function, been the person that He wants me to be? Faithfulness m
being God's person in everything that I do.

... ministry flows out of who we are and not what we can do. 'N
power but by my spirit'....things are going to happen in a dimensio
all of our giftedness could never make happen.

I had a struggle. .. about what direction to take, about what my

was. And I finally gave up and I understood that the way in whic

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234

find what God wants you to do is simply to find the kind of person God
wants you to be and then trust God to get you where God wants you.

In the religious language of vocation the meaning of the "call" is found in the
transformed self. A calling is not just a job or an abstract aspect of professional-
ism; it is more the discovery of possibilities about oneself, insight into who one
is and what one should do. The purpose of work in a calling is the transforma-
tion of the "selves" of the laity, and the means for doing that is to be trans-
formed oneself into a tool or a vessel suitable for godly work. Ultimately the
call is to be a certain person, to live out a particular destiny, to be faithful to an
ideal and, when it is understood in this way, the idea of vocation becomes for
those who hear the voice a powerful resource for dealing with the pressures and
tensions of ministry work; indeed it is a powerful resource for confronting the
uncertainty of modem life. The call is a symbol of divine direction and divine
acceptance, and it is used by clergy to connect themselves to the communities in
which they serve, to articulate the most basic ideas about who they are, and to
make sense of their lives.

NOTES

*An earlier version of this paper was read at the 1992 annual meeting of the Soci
for the Scientific Study of Religion. Thanks to the editor of this journal and to ano
mous referees for their helpful suggestions and encouragement. Special thanks to the t
dozen clergy men and women who generously shared their time and insights.

1. This change is evident in the increasing mobility of American clergymen through

out the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries. "In all, 71 percent of the Yale gradu
who entered ministry from 1702 to 1795 served one pulpit for their entire career. Onl
percent had served three or more churches during their career. In contrast, of the 162
graduates who entered ministry between 1795 and 1815, only 24 percent held one p
torate, and 29 percent had four or more positions" (Donald M. Scott, cited in Mart
1988:79).
2. Albert Schweitzer (1990:88-89) writing about his own call, suggests that the point
not to construct a career in order to gain recognition, but it is to be the "person who fi
value in any kind of activity and who gives of himself with a full sense of service ... " T
call is not a matter of "heroism, but only of a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm
There are no heroes of action--only heroes of renunciation and suffering."
3. Carroll (1989:44) contends that "We grant (clergy) authority to lead, not beca
they claim infallibility or cloak themselves in an infallible scripture or an infallib
church, nor simply because the church has ordained some of them into the clergy offi
In the last analysis, we grant them authority or legitimacy because we have come to tr
them as reliable representatives and interpreters of God's power and purposes."
4. The sample consisted of three clergy each from Baptist and Roman Catho
churches; two each from Methodist, Presbyterian, and Church of God; one each from t
United Church of Christ, Evangelical Free, Christian Reformed, Church of Chr
Disciples of Christ, Nazarene, non-denominational Bible, non-denomination
Community, Four Square, Assembly of God, Lutheran, and Congregational. The larg
church (Roman Catholic) has a total of approximately three thousand worshipers atte
ing five weekend services; the smallest, a mainline Protestant, has approximately sev
ty-five on a Sunday morning. The modal church size is between two and three hund
In addition to the three Roman Catholics, nine clergy are mainline Protestant, and elev
evangelical and/or fundamentalist (based on seminary attended, denominational affi
tion, and/or self-identification.) The highest degrees earned include three Ph.D.s, t
D.Min.s, fifteen seminary degrees, two B.A.'s, and two Bible school diplomas. Twen
one men and three women were interviewed.

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 235

5. When Luther translated I Corinthians 7:20 from Greek to German ("Let every man
abide in the same calling wherein he was called."), he used the German beruf for the
Greek word that appears in English as "calling". Beruf also refers to a person's general
status-married or single, slave or free. Emmet (1956:246) suggests that his reformed
view of calling "really means the acceptance of one's status (stand) within the world as a
sphere within which the duties of a Christian man can be carried out".
6. Calvin states in his Institutes of the Christian Religion: "... the Lord bids each one
of us in all life's actions to look to His calling. For He knows with what great restlessness
human nature flames, and with what fickleness it is borne hither and thither, how its
ambition longs to embrace various things at once. Therefore lest through our stupidity
and rashness everything be turned topsy-turvy, He has thus appointed duties for every
man .... He has named these various kinds of living 'callings' (reprinted in Spitz,
1966:138-139).
7. Gross (1958:204) conceptualizes calling as a particular kind of loyalty-loyalty to a
"cause" as opposed to loyalty "to an outside group, to the organization within which one
works, (or) to one's clients." Deep commitment to vocation is liable to produce conflict
with institutional norms, with colleagues, clients, etc.
8. Carroll (1989:59) points out that as "personal authority" grows in importance, cler-
gy are vulnerable both to the "temptation to please at any price" ("tiptoeing through the
tithers") and "to controversy, conflict and possible dismissal when they seek to be faithful
to Christian identity as they understand it."
9. Fichter (1961:3-4) distinguishes between the subjective aspect of calling, a "gen-
uine personal, inner urge which is something very different from a calculating considera-
tion of a plan or proposal exteriorly presented", and the objective, "recognizable suitabili-
ty of health, of intellect and of character." The subjective inner call is not a matter of act-
ing in one's own best interests-it is a "mission or commission, through which the indi-
vidual is 'sent' into the world to fulfill the special commands of God."
10. Martin (1978:293) argues that despite democratization and volunteerism in the
church, modern laity "expect the clergyman to look after the sacred for them on Sunday
... His ideology of communal participation is irrelevant to them."
11. The most common growth strategies involve changes in worship format. Pastors
looking for larger congregations experiment with non-traditional service times, new
music, casual dress, preaching without a pulpit, etc.. They sing "praise choruses" instead
of hymns and use various kinds of musical accompaniment including rock bands. The
new style service attracts new church-goers, who, as a mainline Protestant commented,
"are baby-boomers who don't know the meaning of old lyrics like 'Now I raise my
Ebenezer'."
12. A number of respondents speculated about the value of testing one's call by look
ing for achievements in one's career. This pragmatic approach is not new. The evangeli
D.L. Moody was "never ordained, yet few who heard him ever doubted the validity of his
'call'... Those who came under his influence were convinced (that his success in min
istry) came directly from God. Before and since Moody the chief standard of success a
an evangelist . .. in American Protestantism has been evidence of such charisma" (Mead
1983:255-256).
13. The issue of what they would have become if they hadn't gone into professiona
ministry was a frequent topic. If they hadn't become a pastor they would be professional
athletes, physicians, college professors, scientists, or business people. Although some
pastors "love" their work, others say that the career they gave up when they went int
ministry is the path they really wanted to pursue at that time, and it is still what they want
to do. Some respondents also talked about their lack of innate skill for ministry work. Th
calling isn't exactly the same as what an individual wants to do, or even what they ar
naturally good at.
14. Of course clergy try to protect themselves from the dangers of fraternizing with the
laity, but many factors make this difficult. Pastors are in a different relationship with their
parishioners than are physicians, attorneys, or even therapists with their clients. To guar
against the risks, pastors "hold back" in various ways. They might buy a house some dis-
tance away from their church; they won't say certain things from the pulpit; they leave
town to dine out or to buy a six pack of beer; they are careful about personal friendships
with the laity; they avoid certain types counseling situations, etc.

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236

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